My Vision for Mind Uploading

I believe that the first steps in mind uploading will be equivalent to a "super Facebook," in that a user signs up and inputs preselected information (likes, dislikes, preferences) that will determine, through a complicated algorithm, how that person would act in the real world. It would be a much more organized and sophisticated system than any of Facebook's current features.

Along with simple likes and dislikes, the user will need to complete a series of personality tests that have been proven to be the most accurate. This will require a few hours of tests and inputting personal data, but I believe that people would be more than willing to do it if the end result is a virtual clone of oneself. Now I'm not saying that this process will be perfect in its first stages (maybe even ever), but I do believe that this is the most practical method and through constant refining it could very closely imitate people's attitudes, mannerisms, and other traits that compose our personalities.

Along with personality duplicating, I believe that the web service would include a pseudo-physical feature in the form of an avatar. Through an advanced avatar-building method, which involves uploading different angles of one's body and movements, a user would create a realistic virtual self. The avatar-builder would be more advanced than today's cartoon-like builders. It would require a user to upload preselected angles of their face and body to the service, which then analyzes, through face-detection technology, how that user is structured an recreates the user. In addition, preselected motions of the user would be uploaded to the service in the form of videos. Those videos are then analyzed with a body-detection technology that identifies the user's motion-traits.

Once the avatar is built, the user could explore the website's virtual world. This virtual world would have to be as sophisticated and life-like as possible, so the virtual clone could function in as close to an environment as the user's. One possibility for creating a truly life-like virtual world is a technology similar to Google's Streetview, but allows rendering of a 3d space, effectively transferring the real world to the internet.

Of course this is just a rough outline of what I envision the beginning of mind uploading will look like, but it should be enough to give one an idea. As new technologies emerge, so will the possibilities. I invite anybody to add any thoughts on this possibility and any useful additions to it. I have a more detailed description that I am currently working on, but I will post that when it is more refined.

In conclusion, this website would be a mix between a social networking site (i.e. Facebook, Lifenaut), a virtual world (i.e. Second Life, video games), and entirely new technology that will create the next step in human online presence.